ATTITUDE AND VALUES

DR. TANUSHREE CHAKRABORTY

(Ph.D)
International School of Business and
Media
Kolkata Campus.
EN 22, Sector V.
Salt Lake City.
Kolkata 700 091.
Values, Attitudes, and Their Effects
in the Workplace

 What are values?

 Why are differences in values
important?
 What are attitudes and how are they
formed?
 What is job satisfaction?
Values

◦ Basic convictions about what is

important to the individual
◦
◦ They contain a judgmental element
of what is right, good, or desirable.
 Types of values
◦
 Terminal:
 Goals that individuals would like to
achieve during their lifetime
Instrumental:
 Preferable ways of behaving

 Importance of values
Values generally influence attitudes and
behaviour.
Values vs. Ethics
 Ethics
◦ The science of morals in human conduct
◦ Moral principles; rules of conduct
◦
◦
◦
 Ethical Values are related to moral judgments
about right and wrong
Components of Attitude
Attitudes and Values are affected by

Past experience and interactions with the given

person, people or situation

Continuing experiences and interactions

Perceptions and levels of general understanding

7
The presence of, and understanding of,
the particular rules, regulations, and
other limitations

Particular mental and physical aspects

Levels of identity with the others involved
and with the situation
Following elements can develop Positive
Attitudes
Reinforcing what is said

Attention to reinforcing absolute standards and
quality of product, service, delivery and other
factors (community development etc)

Attention to prevailing moral and social pressures

Attention to mutuality of interests in any given
situation (win-win)



Attention to clarity of purpose, clear and precise
communication

Attention to job and work satisfaction: pay and
rewards, supervision and management style, co-
workers, motivation etc

Attention to basic human needs of pride, esteem,
worth, Approach to work, environment,
performance

Attitudes at Workplace
Job Satisfaction
 A person’s general attitude about his or her work

 High job satisfaction entails positive attitude towards
work

 Absenteeism

 Turnover

 Workplace misbehavior
Organizational
Commitment
 It is the degree to which an employee identifies
with a particular organization and its goals and
wishes to maintain membership in an
organization

 More the OC less the absenteeism and turnover

 More the OC more the JS
Cognitive Dissonance
 Attitude change

 Any incompatiability or inconsistency between
attitudes or between behaviour and attitudes.
Case Study
 Mr. Aditya joined ACB Group as a process designer

 Under his tenure there were two strikes – one for 5
weeks and the other for 18 weeks and Mr. Aditya
joined the strikes as a member of the union

 Last year Aditya got a promotion at a supervisory level
with a marked monetary increment

  During the orientation programme, Aditya was angry at
the management representative


 This person seemed to believe that the union was too

powerful and management personnel had to hold the
line against further loss of authority


 Aditya did not say anything but he felt the speaker was
very ill informed and biased

 Later two developments have changed Aditya’s
attitude toward the union-management relations at
the company

Incidents
 1)Run in with a union officer who accused Aditya
deliberately harassing one of the workers

 2)The other was a result of disciplinary action

 Aditya realized that the union went of its way to
embarrass him in both the cases


 Few days back the manager from the orientation

session called Aditya and said

 “ I have been thinking about bringing supervisors into
the orientation meetings to discuss the union’s
attitude toward management. Having been on the
other side, would you be interested in giving them
your opinion of what they should be prepared for
and how they should respond?”


 Aditya agreed delightedly.

Discussion
 What was Aditya’s attitude toward the union when he
first became a supervisor?

 What barriers were there that initially prevented him
from changing his attitude regarding the union?

 Why did Aditya’s attitude change? What factors
accounted for this?

 Are workers who are recruited for supervisory positions
likely to go through the same attitude as Aditya?

Case
2
 Absenteeism has been so chronically high
at a manufacturing plant that on many
days there is not enough crew present at
the start of a shift to staff all stations of
the assembly line. The company is
suffering as result and turns to you for
advice. Answer the following
questions….
Discuss

 How can the job be made more interesting so as to

encourage the employees to sow up for the
work?


 What can be done to improve organizational

commitment? And reduce absenteeism?



Thank you